Vol. 5, No. 7, July 2008
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MGM Keeps Marina Lot
After a four-year legal wrangle, a New Jersey appeals court ruled last month that MGM Mirage Inc. was within its rights when it declined to sell a 14-acre waterfront lot in Atlantic City to a condo developer. In July 2004, Seaboard Towers Development Co. sued A.C. Holding Corp., an MGM subsidiary, when the deal fell through. Seaboard had offered $22 million for the undeveloped land, which it planned to turn into a luxury condo-hotel complex with three high-rises; its option to buy was extended, but when the agreement expired MGM withdrew from the deal. Over the years, the disputed tract has been the proposed site of at least two casino projects. In the 1980s, casino titan Steve Wynn planned to build a resort on the property, which is located next to Trump Marina. The appeals panel in the MGM case upheld a 2007 ruling by Superior Court Judge William Todd, who found no reason to sell the land to Seaboard, despite its insistence that MGM violated its agreement. MGM is also developing 72 nearby acres into a $4.5 billion-to-$5 billion Las Vegas-style mega-resort that will be Atlantic City’s largest casino complex. Pending state construction approvals, the company expects to break ground on the project this year or in 2009, and open in 2012.
